Offshore Wind Journal

Leading liftboat designer enters offshore wind market with new design

Suda’s JG6000P is optimised for the offshore wind industry and can transport and install up to four 8 megawatt wind turbines

AK Suda Ltd (Suda), the well-known designer of liftboats, is entering the fast-growing offshore wind industry with a new series of vessels.

The company’s managing director Ajay Suda said “With the experience we have gained in the oil and gas industry and a family of highly efficient liftboat designs under our belt, it was an obvious step for us to take to enter the burgeoning offshore wind market.”

The new design, the JG6000P, is an optimised special-purpose liftboat. It can carry up to four 8 megawatt wind turbines and has sufficient crane capacity to install them.

The first in the series will be a Jones Act (that is, US-built, owned, flagged and operated) vessel.

The company says the vessel is comparable in cost to build in the US to vessels built in the Far East.

“We have priced the vessel in the US and in the Far East. Based on information available, we are confident that it is cheaper to build in the US rather than in the Far East.”

All Coast has partnered with Semco LLC, the southeast Louisiana-based shipyard, to build the first JG6000P.